Book Review - Awake at the Wheel by Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff
Category Book Review Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff Awake at the Wheel
Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World) by Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff can, in my opinion, be compared to the classic "Who Moved My Cheese?". Ditkoff does for creativity what Johnson and Blanchard did for living with change... It gives the reader a short, humorous story loaded with meaning and concepts that hit the reader right where they live.
Contents:
What's The Big Idea?; Choosing; Author's Note; The Story of Og; Og Gets an Idea; Dazed By the Possibilities; Aargh!; The Grunt of the Town; Getting Around To It; Og's Head Is Full, But the Cupboard is Empty; The Big Meating; The Path Is Made By Walking On It; Crouch; An Arrow to the Heart of the Matter; Nothing to Get; Smoke From a Fire, Flakes From a Stone; The Happy Accident; The Center is Everything; Sleeping Like a Rock; Follow Your Feet; Everyone's Turn; What Og Learned - 12 Wheely Good Best Practices; Tooling Up - 35 Ways to Get the Wheels Turning; Writing It In Stone - The Tools and Techniques Contest; Nexting - How to Invent the Future; Staying on a Roll - Resources for Thinking Outside the Cave; OgCasting - Your Free Audio Bonus; About the Author
Ditkoff explores the world of ideas and creativity though the story of Og. Og is a caveman who spends more time thinking than the average Neanderthal. He stumbles upon the concept of a circle, and becomes obsessed with what it could mean to the group. Of course, most of his fellow cavemen are more concerned about maintaining the status quo... hunting, eating, staying warm. Og takes a journey to talk with a wise one, and from that trip the wheel is born. But even then, others in his clan are more interested in shooting it down as something that will never work. But one person *does* figure out the practical application, and pretty soon everyone is "rolling along" with the greatest thing since dried mammoth...
I really did like this book. Taking the concept of ideas and putting them in caveman terms freshens up what could be just another book on creativity. At the end of the book are 35 "tools" you can use to spur your own idea machine, as well as how best to make sure these fleeting thoughts don't disappear like smoke from a campfire. Like many companies have done with "Cheese", this should be a mass purchase, handed out to all employees, and then discussed in team meetings. Those who are into this genre will love it, and the Neanderthals who are cynical will likely spend the 30 minutes or so it should take to read it. And they *might* even come out of that experience as the new Og of your organization.
Awake at the Wheel: Getting Your Great Ideas Rolling (in an Uphill World) by Mitchell Lewis Ditkoff can, in my opinion, be compared to the classic "Who Moved My Cheese?". Ditkoff does for creativity what Johnson and Blanchard did for living with change... It gives the reader a short, humorous story loaded with meaning and concepts that hit the reader right where they live.
Contents:
What's The Big Idea?; Choosing; Author's Note; The Story of Og; Og Gets an Idea; Dazed By the Possibilities; Aargh!; The Grunt of the Town; Getting Around To It; Og's Head Is Full, But the Cupboard is Empty; The Big Meating; The Path Is Made By Walking On It; Crouch; An Arrow to the Heart of the Matter; Nothing to Get; Smoke From a Fire, Flakes From a Stone; The Happy Accident; The Center is Everything; Sleeping Like a Rock; Follow Your Feet; Everyone's Turn; What Og Learned - 12 Wheely Good Best Practices; Tooling Up - 35 Ways to Get the Wheels Turning; Writing It In Stone - The Tools and Techniques Contest; Nexting - How to Invent the Future; Staying on a Roll - Resources for Thinking Outside the Cave; OgCasting - Your Free Audio Bonus; About the Author
Ditkoff explores the world of ideas and creativity though the story of Og. Og is a caveman who spends more time thinking than the average Neanderthal. He stumbles upon the concept of a circle, and becomes obsessed with what it could mean to the group. Of course, most of his fellow cavemen are more concerned about maintaining the status quo... hunting, eating, staying warm. Og takes a journey to talk with a wise one, and from that trip the wheel is born. But even then, others in his clan are more interested in shooting it down as something that will never work. But one person *does* figure out the practical application, and pretty soon everyone is "rolling along" with the greatest thing since dried mammoth...
I really did like this book. Taking the concept of ideas and putting them in caveman terms freshens up what could be just another book on creativity. At the end of the book are 35 "tools" you can use to spur your own idea machine, as well as how best to make sure these fleeting thoughts don't disappear like smoke from a campfire. Like many companies have done with "Cheese", this should be a mass purchase, handed out to all employees, and then discussed in team meetings. Those who are into this genre will love it, and the Neanderthals who are cynical will likely spend the 30 minutes or so it should take to read it. And they *might* even come out of that experience as the new Og of your organization.